Sudan president apologizes for not attending Islamic-U.S. summit

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir apologized on Friday for not being able to attend the upcoming Arab Islamic American Summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh, official SUNA news agency reported.

"The President of the Republic has apologized for not attending the summit for special reasons and tasked the State Minister at the Presidency and Director of his offices Gen. Taha Al-Hussein to represent him at the summit and participate in all its activities," SUNA said.

Al-Bashir wished the leaders participating in the summit all success, expressing hope that the summit would serve the interests of humanity and achieve its objectives.

He also expressed hope that the summit would achieve international peace and security, form a new partnership to confront extremism and terrorism and disseminate the values of tolerance, co-existence and joint cooperation.

Earlier, al-Bashir received a message from Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, delivered by his special envoy, to invite him to attend the summit.

However, the U.S. embassy in Khartoum said on Wednesday that Washington opposes inviting anyone subject to outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants, including Sudanese President al-Bashir.

In 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir for allegedly genocide and crimes against humanity.